Best Siding Material to Deter Racoons?

[Michael Garofalo]

BP community,

I've had issues with racoons for ~6 months for one of my properties. Previously a family made their way into the attic and then the chimney. I had rodent control remove them, place a cap on the chimney, and seal up a hole in the siding that they had used to enter the attic. Thought that was the end of it but got a call from one of my tenants last week stating something made its way into the attic again. Long story short, over the past week rodent control has captured 3 racoons and 1 possum. 

My question is: once we are confident these critters are gone, what would be the best material to use to deter them from climbing and clawing their way back into the house in the future? The siding is cedar shake and quite old, I could patch the area again with wood but I am considering re-doing the siding since this is a 100+ year old duplex and that would need to happen at some point over next several years anyway. My preference would be to use vinyl since this is a standard rental, but I would consider hardie plank if folks feel that would do a superior job at preventing the racoons from clawing their way back in.